Complex Living Brain Simulation Replicates Sensory Rat Behaviour (cell.com)

New submitter physick writes: The Blue Brain project at EPFL, Switzerland today published the results of more than 10 years work in reconstructing a cellular model of a piece of the somatosensory cortex of a juvenile rat. The paper in Cell describes the process of painstakingly assembling tens of thousands of digital neurons, establishing the location of their synapses, and simulating the resulting neocortical microcircuit on an IBM Blue Gene supercomputer. “This is a first draft reconstruction of a piece of neocortex and it’s beautiful,” said Henry Markram, director of the Blue Brain Project at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. “It’s like a fundamental building block of the brain.”

Comments

Isn't it a bit late?

[Giant Electronic Bra]

So I guess the implosion of the Human Brain Project has FINALLY gotten Dr Markram to publish something on brain simulation? He might have deflected a lot of criticism and saved himself a lot of grief if he'd done this 2 or 3 years ago.

Re:Isn't it a bit late?

[SuricouRaven]

They are trying to reverse engineer one the most complicated structures in the known universe, which operates on principles unlike those of any construct of human engineering. Even greatly simplified simulations of the most miniscule parts require a supercomputer to run - and that's just for rats. Do you expect progress to be rapid?

Re: Isn't it a bit late?

[Anonymous Coward]

The giant sucking sound you hear is all the euros going into Markram's project instead of the dozens of more productive (and scientifically illuminating) labs of Europe.

Re:I for one

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

Congress? Oh no, that would assume they have brains, lol.

Honestly, I think a Beowulf cluster of synthetic rat brains would be more productive than the whack jobs we have in Congress right now.